Thursday, 8 October 2009

The influx of foreign owners into the Football and Premier League and uncertainty over who actually owns Leeds United and Notts County, as well as doubts over Flavio Briatore’s involvement with QPR, has brought the ‘fit and proper person’ test in to focus. But what is it?

The ‘fit and proper persons test’ was first introduced in 2004 as a way of safeguarding clubs against falling in to the ownership of unscrupulous owners, with nothing in place before that time to stop those previously convicted of offences such as fraud from buying and running clubs.

Rules were established jointly between the Premier League, Football League and the Football Conference that any prospective director of a football club or someone looking to buy over 30 per cent of the club’s shares needed to satisfy.

The details of the test are myriad but the most important points forbid anyone with unspent criminal convictions relating to acts of dishonesty or someone who has taken a football club in to administration twice from taking charge of a football club.

The only person currently known to have fallen foul of the restrictions is Dennis Coleman, who as director of Rotherham United was responsible for twice taking the Yorkshire club into administration.

The exact criteria vary between the Premier League and the Football League after government pressure saw the former tighten up it’s rules while those of the latter remain in their 2004 form. However, the Football League’s chairman, Lord Mawhinney is seeking to correct this imbalance, in agreement with other interested football bodies.

The Premier League now asks members to publicly declare the names of anyone who owns over 10 per cent of the club. The Football League asks for names of owners of clubs but does not currently make them public. The Premier League also seeks assurances about where money is coming from to fund a club.

An important difference remains that the Premier League applies the test before a takeover is approved whereas the Football League garners information only after a deal has gone through.